From the other side | Exhibition Kit

Minyoung Kim
born 1989, Seoul
lives and works in London, UK

Key ideas and concepts: Drawing, animation, cats, dark humour

Through a selection of darkly humorous pastel drawings and hand-drawn stop-motion animations, Kim conjures dark forces and fantasies as a means of navigating the uncertainty of emotional experience. Employing a self-proclaimed ‘creepy-cute’ aesthetic, Kim’s animated Live Drawing Books I-III 2018 concoct a range of spells and potions through recurring motifs, emblems and characters. Her drawings Staring, The Bath, The Grass, and The Night, all 2021, depict black cats, bloody bodies, and staring eyes, lifting the veil on her hidden emotions, inexpressible in words, hidden deep within the subconscious, superstition, and revealed through introspection* of the self.

My canvas contains memories, anxiety, regret, desire, dreams, and everything inside me that I may not be able to express myself directly. I sincerely project myself onto the canvas. Sometimes I become a weak mermaid, a human-harming cat, and a woman with a threatening knife. Minyoung Kim

*Introspection – the examination or observation of one’s own mental and emotional processes

Discussion Questions:

• • How would you describe the mood/tone of these artworks?
  • Why do you think the artist has chosen to depict their imagery in a seemingly childlike style?
  • What is conveyed through the artist’s use of drawing materials such as pencil and oil pastel?
  • When you view this work online or in pictures, describe your emotions and thoughts and how your experience of the work changes over time.

Quick Make Idea: Turn a series of your drawings into a video animation. Choose a subject that connects with the themes in the exhibition From the other side, such as the subconscious, the feminine, or horror.

Julia Robinson
born 1981, Kaurna Country/Adelaide
lives and works in Kaurna Country/Adelaide, Australia

Key ideas and concepts: Sculpture, myths, horror 

Julia Robinson’s sculptural ‘scarecrows,’ The Pledge 2021-22 and Burrow Mump 2022, from her recent series The Beckoning Blade – awaken ghosts buried deep within the soil. Each sculptural assemblage presents a splayed smocked* garment, handmade and hand-dyed by the artist, propped or framed by a repurposed and modified scythe**; a tool used to reap or harvest crops, and a symbol of death.

Grounded in the struggle for survival on the land, The Beckoning Blade series conjures notions of cults and myths, decay and renewal, and the fine line between a love and fear of nature. Together, the works materialise as a suite of frightening figures that embrace the role of harbinger*** and set the stage for sacrifice.

Using found or fabricated objects in lieu of body parts I become a sort of butcher, slicing off bits deemed irrelevant or redundant. Branches, poles or chairs may stand in for limbs, and body parts are rounded off to smooth nubs as the figurative form dissolves and is subsumed by foreign elements. Julia Robinson

*Smocked – Smocking is an embroidery technique used to gather fabric so that it can stretch. Before elastic, smocking was commonly used in cuffs, bodices, and necklines in garments instead of buttons.

**Scythe – A scythe is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass or harvesting crops. In modern-day European-based folklore, the scythe represents the grim reaper.

***Harbinger – a person or thing that foreshadows a future event : something that gives an anticipatory sign of what is to come.

Discussion Questions

• What kind of materials has the artist used to create these artworks?
• Why do you think the artist chose to use clothing that has smocking and embroidery as part of its design? What does this suggest to the viewer?
• What aesthetic qualities are expressed through the use of contrasting elements such as texture?
• Why do you think the artist chose to depict all of these sculptures together as a series rather than presenting just one individual sculpture?

Quick Make Idea
What materials can you use to make a ‘sculptural scarecrow’?

Mia Boe
born 1997, Meanjin/Brisbane
lives and works in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia

Key ideas and concepts: Digital prints, film references, Australian history

Boe’s digitally manipulated prints, A Desolate Primitive Place and I Suspect, both 2023, are derived from two quintessentially Australian films: Wake in Fright, 1971, and Walkabout, 1971. Each work manipulates an unnerving and ambiguous scene from these classic films that convey the encroachment of the human made built environment and a frightening disconnection between people and place. Boe interrupts each scene with a strategically positioned self-portrait, inserting herself as a means to reclaim space, return the gaze, and reassert presence. 

Side-by-side, A Desolate Primitive Place and I Suspect offer uncomfortable and unembellished reflections on Australian society – both past and present – emphasising notions of alienation and racism, profanity spawned by fear of the other. 

 [At university ] I wanted to learn about other artists, other cultures and history and the politics of the time… I had always known that I wanted to make paintings which were both personal and historical. Mia Boe

Discussion Questions:

• Why do you think the artist created these works as digital prints rather than paintings?
• How does the artwork explore and challenge the power dynamics of our contemporary society?
• Mia Boe’s works explore history and connection to place, why do you think it is important for Boe to explore this through art?
• If you know the films Wake in Fright 1971 and Walkabout 1971, why do you think the artist chose to represent these films in their artwork?